27th February 2014
First Blog post from Kerala:
Ah! After months of waiting I am in Kerala, as part of Kerala Blog Express, a unique initiative by Kerala Tourism. As some of you would remember that I participated in Kerala Blog Express along with hundreds of other bloggers from around the world. Thanks to all the love and votes by readers of desi Traveler, here I am in the beautiful southern state of Kerala along with 25 top travel bloggers from around the world.
I visited Kerala last time many many years ago and for some reason or other my next trip always got postponed, but here I am finally chatting with some of the finest travel blogger from around the world and some from India. Check this link to find out who all are here as part of winning the Kerala Blog Express.
We would start our tour tomorrow morning in a special bus and cover all the wonderful places in Kerala, and first hand find out why Kerala is called ” God’s Own Country”.
Here is the itinerary, that Gaila Passarelli, who was the first to arrive from Sao Palo, Brazil shared with us.
- Day 1:Guests arrive at Kovalam -Overnight stay at Kovalam
- Day 2: Proceed to Varkala -Overnight stay at Kovalam / Varkala
- Day 3: Proceed to Alleppey -Overnight stay at House Boat
- Day 4: Full Day at Kumarakom-Overnight stay at Kumarakom
- Day 5: Proceed to Thekkady -Overnight stay at Thekkady
- Day 6: Full Day at Thekkady -Overnight stay at Thekkady
- Day 7: Proceed to Munnar -Overnight stay at Munnar
- Day 8: Proceed to Athirappilly -Overnight stay at Cheruthuruthy
- Day 9: Full Day at Kalamandalam -Overnight stay at Cheruthuruthy
- Day 10: Proceed to Punnathur Ana Kotta -Overnight stay at Wayanad
- Day 11:Full Day at Wayanad -Overnight stay at Wayanad
- Day 12 : Full Day at Wayanad-Overnight stay at Wayanad
- Day 13: Proceed to Bekal -Overnight stay at Bekal
- Day 14:Full Day at Bekal -Overnight stay at Bekal
- Day 15:Proceed to Cochin by Train -Overnight stay at Cochin
- Day 16:Full Day at Cochin-Overnight Stay at Cochin
- Day 17: Departures
So we will cover historical, cultural, wildlife, nature and even religious hot spots of Kerala.
I met fellow travelers at the airport was joined by Emaneule, who arrived from Thailand, though originally he is from Sicily.
By the time I reached hotel it was already dinner time and I just said hi to some of the bloggers there. I am yet to talk to them in detail except for few of us who stayed back for some chit chat about travel around the world. We talked about poverty, tourism, scams in tourist places, basically everything related to travel. I was happy to meet some of the people I have interacted on Facebook and twitter like Tarun Gaur and Vijay Nambiar and Shawn Coomer, who now lives in Las Vegas, a city that gets more visitors than many countries.
I did meet a few more, but we just talked and never formally introduced ourselves, but we will be in same trip for 2 weeks and will have a lot of stories to exchange. I like being a traveler 
I will keep you all updated with regular tweets and blog posts about the same. The hashtag we are using for same is #KeralaBlogExpress. So keep watching this space.
